Menu

Center for Jewish History

The Center for Jewish History illuminates international and domestic Jewish history, culture, and heritage. The Center provides a collaborative home for five partner organizations: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

The links below represent the collections I have physically processed. Please check back often, as this list will consistently grow.

For the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS):

The processing of HIAS’ records is a three-year project to organize and create access to their administrative files from the 1950s to about 2000. An additional part of the project involves improving access to client files through a new database search portal. Currently, these client files are only open to immediate family members of those individuals who received HIAS’ help. This project also has a running blog component, which can be accessed here.

The Hadassah Microfilm Collection consists of 16mm and 35mm reels containing images of various Hadassah publications, administrative documents, and personal archival material. Content includes on-site photographs, membership and organizational documents, regional chapter lists and histories, items relating to Hadassah’s Zionist political history, and a near-complete run of Hadassah Newsletter/Magazine. Other than the newsletter/magazine run, all images are unique within the collection.

The Hadassah Oral Histories consist of audio cassette recordings and typed transcripts of oral history interviews as well as related correspondence and research documents. Interviewees include notable members of Hadassah’s National Board, the Honorary Council, Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO), Youth Aliyah, Machon Szold, and Hebrew University, among others. Discussions cover such topics as Hadassah roles and achievements, Jewish upbringings, education, and family.

The Hadassah subject file record group is a collection of files of organizations, events, and genre subjects originally arranged alphabetically by Hadassah’s central filing department. These files served and serve as a ready reference source that represents both the direct and indirect involvement of Hadassah in both national and international affairs. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, newsletters, photographs, and other ephemeral documents.

The Name File record group is a collection of documents representing various individuals, corporations, and non-profit groups who were affiliated with Hadassah. These files were originally arranged alphabetically by the organization’s central filing department as a ready reference source on leaders, doctors, speakers, donors, and religious figures associated with Hadassah’s many projects. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, newsletters, and other ephemeral documents.

The Jewish National Fund records reflect the non-profit organization’s afforestation efforts in Israel in funding partnership with Hadassah. Included in this collection are personnel records, membership lists, and convention summaries, as well as correspondence, project documentation, and publications such as press releases, and magazines.

The Harry R. Rosen Community Building Consultants Records consist of photographs, research, and administrative documentation by and for the dozens of Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) in the United States, Canada, and Israel that Harry R. Rosen and his firm helped develop from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

The Norman A. Sugarman papers consist of both library-bound volumes and unbound manuscripts of addresses, essays, outlines, and published articles written by Sugarman during his career as a tax attorney, an Assistant Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and general champion for charitable organizations.

Along with being a frequent contributor to several New York City newspapers and magazines, Blumenthal served as literary editor for the New Jewish Encyclopedia and later as an associate editor of American Hebrew magazine in New York. Due to his expertise in the literary world, he also found later success as an antiquarian book dealer in New York and Philadelphia in the 1930s.

For the Leo Baeck Institute (LBI):

This collection contains the records of the Gustav Wurzweiler Foundation of New York, NY, which funded primarily American Jewish organizations (both religious and secular). It consists primarily of correspondence relating to funded and rejected grant proposals as well as financial records and related documentation.